Federal Manager's Daily Report

A coalition of 20 unions with representation in the federal workplace have asked Congress to prevent the FLRA from carrying out plans to close two of its seven regional offices, saying that would put FLRA staff “farther away from the parties relying on their services.”

“The FLRA plays a critical role in enforcing federal labor law through its adjudicatory and prosecutorial roles; it also trains union officers and agency officials on their rights and responsibilities under the law. The proposed reduction of critical frontline staff in the regional offices and the number of those regional offices would critically impede the FLRA’s ability to carry out its mission,” they said in a letter.

The letter said that the plan “was devised under budgetary and policy assumptions that are no longer current or accurate” since Congress and the White House since agreed to overall higher spending levels over the next two years than under the prior agreement.

The unions asked that Congress block the planned closings and meanwhile order the GAO to study “the impact of the proposed closures on the ability of the FLRA to carry out its mission as the law intends both nationally and in the regions that would be affected by the closures.”